Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Worst Headline of the Week

From OneNewsNow:

"Feminists worldwide promoting 'sexual genocide.'"

So, upon glancing at this headline, a reasonable person would probably believe that the contents of the corresponding article would detail some sort of vast feminist conspiracy to commit mass murder upon people of a particular sex. And given that those promoting this alleged "sexual genocide" are feminists, one might wonder if the corresponding article details the mass murder of the male sex.

Nope, not so much. Not even close.

I'm sure this will come as a shock to those of you are familiar with OneNewsNow's tendency to write asinine over-the-top headlines, but the article actually makes several tangentially-related claims, none of which actually support the bold claim contained in the headline.

First, the article claims that "sex-selective abortion is rampant in many countries and continues to grow." As "evidence" for this claim, the article observes that India and China have low female sex-ratios because female fetuses are selectively aborted. Secondly, because it recognized that females had souls, Christianity "has actually helped females." Third, "radical feminists" support abortion internationally. Therefore, feminists promote worldwide genocide of females.

I'd like to first ask if anyone else is wondering what Christianity supposedly being good for "females" has to do with any of this? What's that you say OneNewsNow, Christianity recognizes that women do indeed have a soul? Neat-o. How big of them. Secondly, the logic contained in this article is so simplistic and immature as to almost not be followable. But I think I get it now. Basically, the argument, minus the defensive Christianity bit, is this:

Some people in India and China practice sex-selective abortion on females. Some feminists favor abortion rights internationally. Therefore, feminists favor worldwide sex-selective abortion on females.

Worst. Logic. Ever.

Anyone browsing Wikipedia could, in 10 minutes, quickly ascertain what sex-selective abortion is really about and then, using a minimum of critical thinking skills, deduce exactly why feminists might take issue with it. Oh, for starters sex-selective abortion:

"[I]s especially common in some places where cultural norms value male children over female children. Societies that practice sex selection in favor of males (sometimes called son preference or female deselection) are quite common, especially in The People's Republic of China, Korea, Taiwan, India, Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, New Guinea, and many other developing countries in East Asia and North Africa."


Does one really need to spell out why feminists just might take issue with using a procedure to kill female fetuses because they're not as important as male ones? That many feminists condone abortion does not mean they condone how other people use it. See, contrary to those who believe the feminist and gay agendas to represent cultures of so-called "death and depravity," feminists do not support a woman's right to choose because they believe in the gratuitous killing of fetuses. And they certainly don't support this right under the belief that it should be used to maintain cultural norms that value male children over female children. To blame the practice of sex-selective abortion on feminists, as opposed to patriarchal societies that value male lives over female ones is more than a bit disingenuous. At the least, it's very ignorant.

In China, for instance, abortion is often used as a means of population control. In some instances, the Chinese government allegedly forces women to have abortions against their will. I don't know of many feminists who would be in favor of that. But hey, maybe OneNewsNow has some super-special intel about secret Chinese radical feminist cells that are advocating for the murder of female fetuses.

But seriously, to suggest that on the one hand, "radical feminists" are so powerful that they're able to "promote sexual genocide" worldwide yet mysteriously not powerful enough to stop the root causes of son preference, suggests to me only that one is living in a paranoid anti-feminist fantasy world.

It's time to stop using ridiculous, misleading, over-the-top headlines and start getting real.

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